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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  12. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. degree — an amount
  3. wake — a trail
  4. stock — goods
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. pound — for dogs
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. pop — music
  9. wind — moving air
  10. pop — to visit
  11. pound — to hit hard
  12. rule — government
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. pound — a weight
  15. stock — shares
  16. wind — moving air
  17. cold — an illness
  18. rule — a law
  19. degree — temperature
  20. cold — not warm
  21. pop — soda
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. rule — to rule out
  24. degree — from a university

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com